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Int er na tion al Teac hi ng an d Tr ai ni ng Ce nt re

Cambridge Diploma in English Language Teachi ng to Adults

NAME: DATE: ASSIGNMENT:

Nergiz Kern 2nd October 2007 Resources and materials
CLASS LEVEL: LESSON LENGTH: MATERIALS (Book & Page Nos.):
Upper-intermediate 60 minutes Martin L. Kings's speech, transcript,
pictures

CLASS PROFILE (general description of type of class & group dynamics)

The class varies in size and composition. It is a multi-cul tural group from six different count ries. They are
all adults, the youngest being 18 years old and the oldest 36. Some of them are attending other courses in
the morning and some are preparing for exams ( e. g. FCE). Their motivations and reasons for studying are
quite divers as well as their previous learning backgrounds. Most of them have spent considerable time
studying and learning English formally as well as informally. Several students have been in the UK for a
longer period of time varying from 6 months to two years. Some would like to stay and live in the UK but
most of them are only here to improve their English.
Although the class has not been together for long, they work together very well and partici pate willingly in
the lessons and interact with each other in a very friendly atmospher e. With the exception two students,
who are rather shy when it comes to speaking in front of the whole class, they are eager to speak and also
take risks in using new language.
In this course, they have been following the Cutting Edge upper-intermediate coursebook. Some of them
are strong upper-intermediate and a few are at t he lower end of the level but have had no problems so far
coping with the tasks given.

Name Nationality Age Profiles

Carlos Spanish 23 Has been learning English for 10 years. Instrumentally. Studies
Business Management and believes that knowing English will
improve his job prospects and will help in in business meetings.
Also interest in English in general. Believes that he learns best by
doing fun activities and therefore enjoys games in the classroom.
Mainly wants to improve his writing and speaki ng skills and his
pronunciation.
Ramiro Spanish 18 Has been learning English for 10 years. He studies Psychology.
Instrumentally as well as integratively motivated. Needs English for
his studies but also believes that English is an important world
language and is generally interested in it. This is his 2nd time in the
UK and he wants to come again. Is a visual learner. Participates
actively in the classroom. Wants to mainly improve listening skills
and pronunciation. Has a very strong Spani sh accents which makes
him difficult to understand at times.
Daniela Slovakia 25 Has been learning English for 7 years. She has been living and
working in the UK for two years. Integratively motivated Self-
confident and outspoken.
Daniela Korean 36 Has been learning English for about 20 years. Has been a teacher.
Instrumentally motivated. Needs English for her job as a travel
agent. Wants to take the FCE. Highly motivated. Has a strong desire
to master English and puts a lot of effort into learning it. She wants
to improve all four skills as wel l as her grammar, knowledge of
vocabulary and pronunciation. Self-confident, active, interested
and inquisitive learner. Positively curious and interested in
learning about other people and cultures.

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Marta Polish 24 Has been learning English for 11 years. Has and MSc in Chemical
Technology. Mainly instrumentally motivated. Needs English for
business meetings and attending conferences. Wants to improve all
her skills plus grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation and
become a fluent speaker. A quiet and concentrated learner.
Nathalie Swiss 16 Instrumentally and integratively motivated. Needs English for
school but also wants to make friends. Planning to go to Australia
as an exchange student. Wants to mainly improve her speaking
skills and improve her grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
Quiet and shy in the classroom. Doesn' t participate in whole class
speaking activities but engaged in pair or small group activities
which suit her personality.
Yasmin Swiss 17 Instrumentally motivated. Needs English for school. Wants to speak
fluently and also improve her listening skills. Grammar, vocabulary
and pronunciation are also important . She wants to go to the USA
as an exchange student.
Laura Spanish 21 Has been s English for 13 years. Has lived in Sheffield, UK for 6
months. Studies Philology. A highly motivated learner. Interested in
all aspects of the language. Instrumentally as well as integratively
motivated. Needs English for her studi es but is also thinking of
emigrating to the UK. Mentioned also a relationship as reason for
learning English. Very self-confident and outgoing. Likes to speak
and speaking is also what she wants to further improve, in addi tion
to vocabulary and pronunciation. Her pronunci ation is already
quite good. When learning / studying she needs things neat and
organised.
Maritza Peruvian 30 Has lived in the UK for 6 months. Is doing her Master's degree.
Instrumentally as well as integratively motivated. Needs English to
finish her Master's degree. Has an English boyfriend. Wants to
improve pronunciation and knowledge of vocabulary. Seems to
me strong in all four skills. Self-confi dent in the classroom.
Eva Poland 21 Has been learning English for about 7 month. Has moved to the
UK one year and two months ago and wants to stay for another 6
months or longer. Works night-shift in a factory. Has studied
Russian and German in Poland. Integratively motivated. Has a lot
of friends and wants to speak with them. Seems to be
mathematical-analytical type of learner.
Chikayo Japan 30 Is a nurse. Quit her job to come to the UK and learn English.
Confident speaker. Is mainly interested in social English to make
friends here. Wants to improve writing, speaking and listening skills
and also mentioned grammar and pronunciation

NEEDS OF THE GROUP

As the students are all at upper-intermediate level, most of them can use grammatical structures and tenses
quite accurately even in situation where they have to use a mix of tenses, as far as I have been able to
observe so far. But as most of them need English for their university studies or will need it for work
afterwards, they still want to further improve their grammar. Their range of vocabulary is very good and
they are able to fi nd synonyms for words ranging from informal to formal.
At present, I cannot say anything about their writing skills. None of the other DELTA teachers has done any
writing tasks with them yet, and in my lesson with them, they only had to take notes for a speaking
activity.

I couldn't detect any severe pronunciation problems which would impede understanding except with
Ramiro who has a very strong Spanish accent, and teachers as well as his peers have sometimes problems
understanding him. Having said that, there is still a need to work on pronunciation because at this level
they more frequently come across longer and more unusual words. More importantly, there is a need to
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work on sentence stress, intonation and connected speech. Accordingly, all students mentioned
pronunciation as one of the areas they would like to improve on.

As a result of my observations and because for almost all student s improving their listeni ng skills is one of
their priorities, I have chosen listening as a focus of this lesson. I decided to use authentic material
because at this level they have been exposed to a lot of coursebook listening tasks speci fically graded and
recorded for learners. What they need now is being able to cope with real speakers in real environments
with all the difficulties (background noise, quality of recording, accent , etc.) that come with it. Exposing
students to real spoken English is, in addi tion, one way of helping them to improve their pronunci ation.
Most of the students in this group will also have to give speeches, presentations or talks in front of other
people in their work lives or as students.

MAIN AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

 To built students confi dence in dealing with an authentic listening resource – Martin Luther King's
famous “I have a dream” speech.
 To provide practice in listening for specific and detailed information
 To provide practice in note-taking from a speech

SUBSIDIARY AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

 To help students notice a rhetorical device often used in powerful speeches, namely anaphora
(repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph)
 To provide speaking practice by giving a short speech

TIMETABLE FIT (previous & future work)

Most of the previous lessons have concentrated on various reading skills incorpor ating speaking. One of
the lessons was about writing skills with the help of the Internet. In several of them authentic written
material has been used. Therefore, this listening lesson fits in in two respects. Firstly, as a balance to the
reading skills lessons. Secondly, as an exposure to yet another but different kind of authentic material.

PERSONAL TEACHING AIMS

 To generate interest in the topic
 To built rapport with students
 To ensure that my instructions are clear
 To refrain from imposing my opinion on the students

ASSUMPTIONS
 That students have at least general background knowledge about the topic – Civil Rights Movement,
Slavery and Racism in America
 That they have heard of Martin Lut her King and maybe also know about his famous speech
 That they have listened to aut hentic material before (songs , TV, radio, lectures)
 That they have taken notes from listening before (e. g. from lectures)
 That they, having studied English for a while, can cope with and are used to tasks in which they are
asked not to listen to every single word.
 That they are willing to be challenged

LANGUAGE SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

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Five score years = 100
(n)

Emancipation Proclamation (n) = public announcement of great importance

to cash a check (n) = get money for a check

a bad check (n) -> insufficient funds = to give sb. a check

without having enough money on your account
a creed (n) = a belief

self-evident (adj) = obvious / not needing to be explained

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS SOLUTIONS

(language errors / management / materials)
Quality of recording (old). • Make sure it is loud enough.
• Give task where understanding all parts is not
necessary.
Students might find the speech too difficult and get • Grade the tasks.
frustrated. • Make instructions clear (Don't listen to
A lot of figurative speech, mention of places and everything. Concentrate on task).
historic events • Activate previous knowledge before reading.
• Make pauses at appr opriate places to give time to
reflect and note down.
• Students can read transcript during second
listening of part 2 and complete their notes.
Speech is too long. • Choose appropriate sections and leave out the
rest.

Students might not know about Martin Luther King
or the Civil Rights Movement.
Because the speech is too long, I will have make
sure to stop, go forward and backward at the
correct places.
If nobody knows, very briefly outline the topic and
focus them on the tasks for which a detailed
background knowledge of the topic is not
necessary.
I have noted down the exact times where I have to
stop the recording. As the material is digital this
should be easier than with a tape.

COMMENTARY (500 words maximum)

I have chosen this speech as a resource because student s are rarely exposed to this genre in the classroom.
Moreover, most listening in the classroom is shor t. But the student s will most probabl y have to listen to
uninterrupted longer sequences of speech in real life when attending lectures, conferences, business
meetings and presentations or even when watching TV or listening to the radio.

In my first lesson with the students, I had the chance to gauge their listening skills and am, therefore,
confident that they will be able to cope with the material I have chosen. Although the speech contains a lot
of difficult vocabulary and figurative speech, it is delivered relatively slowly and there is lots of repetition.
By grading the tasks, having them work in pairs for some task and allowing them to read the transcript at the
end of listening part 2, I take away the pressure on individual, especially weaker students. Also, it is a
famous and emotional speech, and I hope students will be familiar with it. If not , they will still be able to
relate to the topic of racism, freedom and civil rights which are always relevant.
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The focus of the lesson is not on teaching vocabulary or any grammar point. I mainly want to give the
students the opportunity to listen to longer stretches of material and to start getting used to more challenging
authentic listening without bothering to look up or ask for every unknown word. According to Underwood
(1989, p. 101) “a listening text should not be judged to be too difficult merely because the students will not
be able to understand every word” as “this is also not the way native speakers approach listening.” I will
introduce only a few words at the beginning which I think are crucial for understandi ng. The aim of task 1
and listening part 1 is mainly to get the students tuned in and built up confidence by activating their
schematic knowledge.

“It is relatively difficult to concent rate on spoken material that is heard 'bli nd'”(Ur, P:1984). Therefore, I will
use pictures as a lead-i n to the topic but also as aids in helping students visualise the original setting and
create a kind of context and background for the listening and help students concentrate and understand
better during the longer period of listening. By using pictures to predict the content of the listening
beforehand I want to help the students to develop their top-down processing skills
(www.teachingenglish.org.uk).

In order that weaker student s don't get frustrated about not having understood enough, they can listen twice
to the second part while reading along and comparing their answers with the transcript. This will also help
all students to prepare for the last speaki ng stage.

As the lesson takes place on an early afternoon at the beginning of the week, I hope the students will not be
tired and be able to concentrate.

Bibliography
Underwood, M. 1989. Teaching listening. Longman
Ur, P. 1984. Teaching Listening Comprehension. CUP

www.teachingenglish.org.uk

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